Ivan Reitman will attempt a long reach across the generational divide in May when he begins filming a GenX/GenY romantic comedy called Friends With Benefits, based on a script by Elizabeth Meriwether (writer of the highly-touted, similar-sounding Fuckbuddies…is this the same script with a different title?). Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher will costar in the Paramount flick, which already has a locked-in early 2011 release date — January 7th. Variety calls this date “a lucrative frame for femme-driven comedies,” but a pre-slotted early January release amounts to a kind of statement of expectations about what the film is likely to be.
